The Rose and the Darkness
by penny1200
Summary: Counterpart to The Monster and the Light.  The alternate title of this story could be 5 Times Yuffie Kisaragi Was Honest  and 1 Time She Wasn't .  This is a story of five times when Yuffie was completely honest and one lie that was important to her.


Spoilers: Compliant through FFVII, AC, and DoC.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but the plot. The FFVII franchise is owned by Square/Enix. If I owned it, I'd live in downtown Chicago.

A/N: This fic ties in with my other FFVII fic, The Monster and the Light. The Vincent and Yuffie in that one are the same ones included in this fic; some events may overlap or even lead directly to events in this fic, so I suggest reading that one first. To everyone who reads this, thank you for the support! Also, reviews are crack, so feel free to be my enablers. Please read and review! Thanks!

When Yuffie Kisaragi was eight years old, she attended public school with the rest of the children in Wutai. Her father believed that was the first step to making her a great future ruler; by going to public school, she would understand her subjects better.

Yuffie, of course, felt this was all a big waste of time. First of all, she wasn't going to rule Wutai when she grew up; she was going to be a ninja. Secondly, to her young eyes it seemed like her father just did what the Shinra told him to, and she didn't want anyone bossing her around. She was only eight, though, and their local ninja master wouldn't take on anyone under the age of ten. So, Yuffie found herself shuffled off to public school Monday through Friday, her father expecting good grades in exchange for future ninja training.

The weekend that Godo brought home her very first kitten Lotus, Yuffie wanted nothing more than to spend all of her free time playing with the fluffy calico. However, a report about Da Chao was due on Monday, so on Sunday, she abandoned Lotus to complete it. It took her several hours (mostly because she wandered off every time something else caught her attention), but when she went to sleep that night, she was confident in the work she'd done.

Yuffie woke up the next morning to a terrible sight. Lotus was standing on her desk _eating her report_. She shooed the cat immediately, but it was too late. All that was legible of her paper was her name and a couple of sentences on the monsters inhabiting Da Chao.

Heart sinking, Yuffie stared down at the soggy scraps. All that work wasted. Sighing, she gathered up the bits and dropped them in the trash can. There was no time to redo it, so she'd just have to explain what happened to her teacher.

When Yuffie got to school, she walked past her desk to the Ms. Higurashi's.

"Ms. Higurashi?" Yuffie asked as politely as possible.

If she didn't want a zero, she figured she should brush off her rusty manners and use them. She wasn't sure that would work when the older lady raised an eyebrow at her. Cringing, Yuffie wondered if her teacher knew that she was the one who'd come up with the nickname Higgy that all the students used behind her back.

"What is it, Miss Kisaragi?" Ms. Higurashi questioned commandingly.

The tone made Yuffie nervous, so she began fidgeting.

"My cat ate my homework!" she blurted out, fingers knotted together.

The teacher studied her face for several moments before responding.

"Nice try, Miss Kisaragi. That's the oldest excuse in the book. Next time you lie to me, do try to come up with something more creative. Now, please sit down."

As Yuffie hurried to her seat, she was slightly hurt and confused.

Why didn't Ms. Higurashi believe her? And, more importantly, wasn't _'my dog ate my homework'_ the oldest excuse in the book?

ooooo

Some people have naturally honest faces. As Yuffie grew up, she learned that she was not one of those people. In fact, she seemed to be just the opposite. Most people believed that she was lying, even when she was telling the truth. She wasn't sure what she had done to deserve that belief (although it might have something to do with the way she always exaggerated). At first, being called a liar annoyed her. Eventually, she learned to see the blessing in disguise. If nobody believed her, then she didn't have to lie; that made the whole ninja thing easier. This ability was especially useful once she left home to collect materia.

That particular journey led to her meeting and joining the members of Avalanche. The main reason she initially joined them was for their materia, but she grew to actually like them as they traveled together. Plus, it was kind of nice not being alone for once.

The others obviously did not feel the same about her.

Every time they were all in the same place, Cloud would switch her to a new group. He claimed that he was trying different formations to see who worked best together, but she knew better. It didn't escape her notice that she was the only one he ever moved, just trading her with a set member of each group. And she heard what they said about her when they thought she was asleep. They called her a brat, a nuisance, and a tag-along. They complained about Cloud sending her with them.

Yuffie tried to brush off their insults. It wasn't as if she had done anything wrong yet. Sure, she planned to take their materia as soon as she was able, but they didn't know that. They really had no reason to be so mean about her. It wasn't as if she wasn't used to it, though.

Everyone's desire to be away from her was so strong that Cloud always grouped her with any new members that joined Avalanche. That was how Yuffie found herself sitting on the beach at the southern end of the Wutai continent with their two newest members - Cid Highwind, a cursing, chain-smoking ex-pilot, and Vincent Valentine, a depressing (and really hot) ex-Turk with actual demons inside of him.

Cid seemed okay, but Yuffie didn't know him that well since he had just joined. She really liked Vincent, though. Sure, he was mostly really quiet, but he never complained about her. And since they'd been traveling together since Nibelheim despite meeting up with Cloud several times, she thought that maybe Vincent hadn't asked to get rid of her.

The three of them were sitting around a fire on the beach. It had been a long day and traveling across the ocean always stirred up Yuffie's nausea, even if it was just on a broken down plane. Their camp was quiet, and looking around, Yuffie could see the two glowing spots that indicated where the others had set up much farther down the beach. For safety's sake, they always made camp separately. Small groups drew less attention than large ones, and the last thing they needed was hoards of monsters attacking while they were trying to sleep.

"I'm bored!" Yuffie complained, finally breaking the silence.

She had never done well with quiet, which was part of why it was so odd that she liked Vincent as much as she did.

"You talking ain't gonna help," Cid stated in his gruff voice.

"Sure it will," she replied perkily. "Hey, Cid, why are you even here? Do you hate the Shinra, too?"

Yuffie and Vincent had been waiting outside of Rocket Town, so they had missed out on what had happened. All Yuffie knew was that they suddenly had Cid and his wrecked Tiny Bronco at their disposal.

"Got nothin' else to do."

Cid's answer wasn't exactly as anti-Shinra as Yuffie had hoped, but at least he was being honest. Yuffie didn't have to ask Vincent why he was around; she'd been with Cloud and Tifa when he'd decided to join them. She wasn't sure exactly why he had decided to fight Sephiroth, but she figured it had something to do with that Lucrecia woman he had mentioned.

"What's a brat like you doing here?" Cid asked.

Yuffie made a face at the insult but answered the question anyway.

"I'm here to steal their materia," she answered honestly.

There was complete silence for several moments and then Cid howled with laughter.

"Right, kid. As if you're good enough to manage that."

Insulted at his questioning of her abilities, Yuffie hopped up.

"I'm going to bed," she announced.

As she walked past Vincent to the tent, she saw that he was watching her thoughtfully. She didn't want to misread him, but something about his expression told her that Vincent, at least, believed her. Surely that was wrong though; nobody ever believed her.

If Vincent did think she was telling the truth, he never said anything to her that night.

The next morning, she woke before Cid and Vincent. She was gone with their materia before the sun rose and by noon, she was scurrying through the mountains, weighed down by every materia orb Avalanche possessed.

They did catch up with her eventually, of course.

And, just for the record, she really did plan to use the materia to restore Wutai.

ooooo

Avalanche did a lot of amazing things during the next few years - defeating Sephiroth, conquering the Remnants, and taking out Bahamut SIN. Yuffie stayed and helped them through it all, even if she never quite gave up hope on eventually taking their shiny orbs of awesomeness. However, the main reason she stuck around was because of the very stupid thing she did during their journey to destroy Sephiroth.

She fell in love.

Yuffie had done a lot of really reckless stuff over her life; it went with the whole ninja thing. But the dumbest thing she ever did was falling in love with Vincent Valentine. She didn't mean to and she definitely didn't want to, but that didn't stop it from happening. The guy was still hung up on Lucrecia. If Yuffie hadn't known that already, the party after the whole Remnants/Geostigma thing would have told her. She just wanted him to agree to actually live his life. He did agree, but Yuffie knew that he was lying. He had a slightly-more-bored-than-usual tone that he used whenever he lied. It was such a subtle difference that nobody but Yuffie, hopelessly (literally) in love with him, could tell.

A year after he told her that lie, Yuffie got a call from Reeve. She had been working with the WRO for a while. It was a good excuse to avoid her father and all of his pressure to start learning how to rule. The ringing phone woke her up, and reaching for it, she overextended and fell out of bed, landing facedown on the floor. Sighing, Yuffie reached up to the nightstand and blindly grabbed the phone.

"Hello?" she answered groggily, voice muffled by the carpet.

"Yuffie, it's Reeve."

Her friend's voice was all business. The tone snapped Yuffie out of her early-morning haze. Something must have happened with as serious as he sounded.

"Hi, Reeve. What's up?" she asked, sitting up.

"I need your help. Headquarters was attacked last night."

Yuffie hopped up. "Oh, no! That sucks! Was it those Deepground people that attacked Kalm? That Weiss guy looked like a jackass in his broadcast. I'll kick all their butts!"

Yuffie was frantically pulling off her pajamas as she spoke. How dare they attack her friend!

Reeve chuckled. "It's okay, Yuffie. Our casualties were relatively small compared to what they could have been, and Vincent was able to take out the leaders of the operation."

"Vinnie was there?" she questioned with surprise, poking her head out of her shirt.

She knew that Reeve was one of the few people from Avalanche that the gunman kept somewhat regular contact with, but it still shocked her that he had been at the WRO Headquarters. She didn't even know he knew where it was located.

"Yes, he was here and he was a great help during the crisis. That's why I'm calling; I have a mission for you."

Yuffie yanked her shirt down and plopped onto the edge of her bed.

"Is Vinnie in trouble?"

She hated the thought that he could be in danger. Vincent was just the sort of guy to rush right into a deadly situation without even considering the other options, though. That was what happened when a good guy didn't appreciate his present or future.

"He's headed to the Shinra mansion. We have every indication that Deepground has set up a stronghold, so he's probably walking into a trap as we speak."

Panicking now, Yuffie popped off the bed and pulled her shorts on.

"I'll go help him," she announced.

"Thanks, Yuffie. Let me know when you find him."

"'Kay."

Yuffie hung up and then looked for her boots. When she'd finally found them (one under the bed, the other on the dresser), she rushed out of Cid and Shera's guest room. It was a long trip to Nibelheim, and Cid had left with the airship last night.

When Yuffie found Vincent, that red-headed Deepground whore had just ripped a hole in his chest. She wanted nothing more than to slice her head clean off for hurting her Vinnie, but he was too badly hurt for her to worry about anything else. She got the driver of the Shadowfox that Reeve had sent from a nearby WRO branch to help her get Vincent into the back of the vehicle. After they got underway, Yuffie tried to heal Vincent's wound, only to find that the hole in his chest was healing up on its own. That was really weird, but she was glad for it.

The ride was quiet and tense, aside from a short call to let Reeve know they were on their way. Yuffie couldn't wait for Vincent to wake up; then she would know that he was okay. It wasn't until they were near WRO headquarters that Vincent finally woke up.

After she had revealed her presence to Vincent dramatically (and embarrassingly whacked her head) and he asked why she was there, Yuffie took a chance for some well-deserved gloating.

"Me? I'm just helping out Reeve and his gang. I was poking around Niebleheim, and I found you looking all corpse-like in Shinra Manor. So, I saved you! Imagine that: me saving the great Vincent Valentine! Do I get any thanks?" she asked brightly before laughing at the thought of Vincent thanking anyone for anything.

"Thanks, Yuffie," Vincent said seriously after chuckling slightly.

The fact that Vincent both thanked her and kind of even laughed stunned Yuffie.

"No, no, whoa. I didn't mean for you to take me so seriously. Anyway, Reeve wanted us to contact him as soon as you woke up," she hurried out, trying to gloss over the awkwardness she felt at his weird behavior.

Maybe all the fighting had knocked something loose in his brain.

While Yuffie dialed up Reeve, she couldn't deny that she was pleased with Vincent's response, though. Even if she was telling the truth that he didn't have to thank her - she'd rescue him any time.

That's what fools do when they're in love.

ooooo

Spending the night with Vincent didn't go how Yuffie had hoped it would. Not the actual sex itself - that was fantastic, if a little awkward due to his long, long celibacy and her relative inexperience (one night with Reno over a year before hardly counted). No, it was the aftermath that disappointed.

When she'd kissed Vincent at Cloud and Tifa's reception and he had responded, she had thought it would be the start to a real relationship. She never would have thought that Vincent would use her for sex and then ditch her the next morning, but he had escaped her room as if Sephiroth himself was on his heels.

Did she say the morning after was disappointing? Scratch that.

It was devastating.

The worst part was that Yuffie wanted to hate him for what he'd done, but she couldn't. She loved him, and it was her own fault for reading more into their night than there was. It wasn't like he'd made her any promises.

The night did drive one fact home for her, though. She needed to move on. If she just kept hoping that Vincent would eventually return her feelings, she'd be no better than him. She'd be stuck dwelling on a man who was just as dead inside as the woman he refused to put behind him.

So, when Reno asked her out, she accepted.

He was still as cute as he was the last time she'd seen him. He was also hopeful, surprisingly honest, and, most importantly, he wanted her.

Six months after they started dating, Reno proposed and Yuffie said yes. She told herself that she was happy; she deserved a future with someone who cared about her.

"Are you really going through with the wedding?"

Surprised, Yuffie looked up from her cereal on her wedding morning to find Tifa standing in front of her. She hadn't thought anyone would be up so early.

"Of course I am. I love Reno."

Tifa raised an eyebrow at her.

"No, you don't. You love Vincent."

Yuffie frowned into her bowl. She hated that Tifa was so insightful.

"I'm getting married today, Tifa. I can't think about him right now."

"This is the most important time for you to think about Vincent, Yuffie. Once you walk down that aisle, you won't have a chance with Vincent anymore," Tifa pointed out, her arms crossed over her chest.

"I don't have a chance with him now," Yuffie asserted. "Gawd, Tifa, if he wanted me, he would have said so months ago."

Annoyed with the conversation and no longer hungry, she got up and carried her half-full bowl to the sink.

"Talk to Vincent, Yuffie. I know he loves you," the other brunette pleaded.

Yuffie shook her head. "He doesn't."

She gave Tifa a quick hug.

"I'm going to the park until I have to get ready. Thanks for caring, Teef. But I can't just place my life on hold for someone who may never feel the same about me as I do about him. I'm marrying Reno."

When Yuffie said those words, she was telling the truth. If Vincent hadn't shown up at the park and told her that he loved her, she would have married Reno.

But Vincent did tell her he loved her, so Yuffie ditched her own wedding.

And to this day, Tifa has never let her forget that she was right.

ooooo

Having a stable relationship with Vincent was...strange. Yuffie wasn't sure what she had expected, but then again, in all honesty, she hadn't actually expected anything where Vincent was concerned.

Nothing that big had changed. Vincent was still quiet, and sometimes he would fall into a funk. Whenever that happened, Yuffie would force herself into his sulking until he moved past it.

The other members of Avalanche had responded to them dating in different ways, some really unexpected. Tifa was thrilled, of course, and she and Shera had started planning their wedding even before the fiasco of Yuffie's aborted wedding had ended. Cloud had barely noticed; Yuffie wasn't surprised by that because he was busy freaking out over Tifa's recent discovery that she was pregnant. Red and Reeve were both glad to see Reno out of her life; apparently, they had never trusted him not to hurt her. Shelke, who had been around since the Deepground incident, had commented in her emotionless way that Lucrecia would be glad Vincent was happy again.

By far, the most shocking responses came from Barret and Cid. Even though Yuffie was twenty, they had never stopped calling her a brat or a kid. They hadn't said anything about her engagement to Reno, so she figured they didn't care. However, several months after she and Vincent began dating, the two men took Vincent out for drinks. She had just moved in with Vinnie, so while he was out, she was busy making the overly organized apartment comfortably messy. Once that was done, she fell asleep on the couch waiting for her boyfriend to get home.

Yuffie woke up when the world around her shifted. Groggy, she burrowed into the warmth of the muscular chest and arms bracing her.

"How was your night?" she asked, fighting not to fall back asleep.

"They plan to disembowel me if I hurt you," Vincent answered dryly.

Yuffie giggled and then over a yawn mumbled, "They do care."

A little over a year after Yuffie and Vincent had gotten together, she began to fear that she was about to lose him. He seemed really distracted, the way she was in the presence of master materia. Any time they were together, Yuffie felt like Vinnie's thoughts were in a different place. It reminded her of when he used to spend all of his time brooding about Lucrecia. She spent weeks waiting for the blow to fall, but it never did; she was just left, worried and sick.

Especially because she had just received some life-changing news.

Yuffie was in the kitchen one rainy morning, staring out of the window and wondering how to break it to him when he came in. She could tell that he was distracted again, and she was tired of losing sleep over how he was acting.

"If you want to dump me, you should just do it," she broke the silence.

Vincent was so quiet that she turned to look at him...

...only to find that he was gone.

Tears leaking out of her eyes, she leaned on the counter and tried to control her nausea. She squeezed her eyes shut. She had thought that he would at least say goodbye.

When she felt the slide of callused skin against her left hand, she opened her eyes. Vincent was standing to her side, crimson eyes concerned and...was he nervous? She was so lost in his gaze that she didn't even notice the movement of his hand until hers was slightly heavier. Looking down, Yuffie saw a simple diamond solitaire on her ring finger. She felt a little teary-eyed again at the sight (_damn hormones_).

Meeting Vincent's eyes again, she asked, "Are you asking me to marry you?"

"You deserve more than my darkness, but..."

Yuffie felt more than a little annoyed at those words. Fisting her hands on her hips, she straightened up to her full (and admittedly short) height and stared him down.

"Vincent Valentine, I don't want to hear it. If I'm going to marry you, there are a couple of truths you need to learn. Number one, whatever voice..." she waved a hand at him, "keeps telling you that you're a monster needs to shut the hell up. I don't date monsters, so you must not be one."

Yuffie could tell from his expression that Vincent was torn between amusement and a desire to argue with her. When his lips quirked slightly, she knew that she had won that point, at least for now.

"And number two?" he asked.

She blushed. "Umm, number two, I'm pregnant."

And that was the first (and only) time Yuffie ever saw her fiancee (later husband) lose his cool.

ooooo

The Edge clinic was quiet. Yuffie, who loved noise (and was often responsible for a lot of it), was actually happy with the silence for once. She was desperately tired and really wanted to sleep, but she couldn't tear her eyes away from the tiny bundle of baby in her arms long enough to.

Yuffie Valentine had given birth to a baby girl at 5:10 in the morning. Asa Chiyo Valentine came into the world kicking and screaming loudly enough to make her mother proud. All of Avalanche was at the clinic to greet her. Just as with Cloud and Tifa's little boy, the press was waiting outside to get news of the baby of two of the world's heroes. After a day filled with visitors and phone calls, Yuffie was glad to have a few moments of silence with her new daughter. Even Vincent had headed down to the cafeteria to get something for her to snack on.

Yuffie could hardly believe that she was a mom. She didn't feel any different than she had before she got pregnant. The only difference was that there was now a second person in her life that she loved as much as her husband, if in a different way.

Stroking dark wisps of hair back from Asa's face, Yuffie spoke softly to her.

"I will never let you get hurt."

"That's a lie, you know."

Vincent's voice sounded from the doorway, startling Yuffie. She knew she would never get used to how quietly he always moved.

"I know it is, but it's worth a try, right?" she defended, dropping her eyes back to their daughter.

As Vincent slid his arms around Yuffie and dropped a kiss on the top of her head, she considered it. Lies were often bad things, such as Vincent telling her that their night together hadn't meant anything. Sometimes, though, they were necessary. Yuffie needed to believe that she could protect Asa from anything that might hurt her even if she knew she couldn't. There would be scraped knees and hurt feelings along the way; it was all part of growing up. The only thing that Yuffie could do was protect her the best she could.

And help Vincent the first time a stupid boy dared to break Asa's heart.


End file.
